Running Bear's April 2020 Coffee Shop


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Morning all,

Lent and Easter are over, it's Friday and I'm not craving a cheeseburger......Big plate of corned beef Hash this morning...Thanks Francine!!! lol

Not much new going on here. Same stuff different day, I do have to stop to get the groceries for the week when I get off work. The oldest daughter and MOH get together and schedule a pickup, so as I get off work, I'll need to stop and pick them up.

Hope to get some train time this afternoon. With the wife home, she finds things other things I ought to do instead of what I want to do.....She's been told she's home another 2 weeks with pay, which is a pay cut because they pay her based on her normal schedule, not what she usually works, which means the additional time and overtime aren't coming in. But as she said, she's still getting paid for now.
 
Good Morning Everyone. Cloudy and 61°. Cool front is coming and it won't get any warmer all day. Warms up again tomorrow if the weather geeks are correct.
Disaster struck yesterday, the heating element finally went out in the water heater. It's 18 years old and it was expected. I have the replacement heater, an electric tankless unit, but I did not have all of the necessary breakers, wire, or stainless steel braided hoses to install it. So a trip to Home Depot took care of that, except I got the wrong breakers. Have to go back today. Yesterday's trip was not a complete waste, because my wife had to turn her H&R Block office keys back in. Why she didn't do it when she left the office Monday is a question that I chose not to ask.

How about a Mexican omelet this morning Flo. Extra sausage on the side and a big glass of OJ.

Thanks for the likes and comments yesterday regarding the ongoing cleanup project; Patrick, Sherrel, Bob, Louis, Garry, Chet, Tom, Phil, Hughie, Karl, Guy, Curt, Jerome, Ken.
The thought about making that unfinished structure into a burnt-out building, that several commenters pointed out, has crossed my mind.

Very little time in the train shed yesterday with all of the other stuff going on here. While I cleaned and dusted a few more structures, I eventually bumped into the throttle and ended up running trains for a while. After all, that's why I have them.
Skipping over to the left a bit, from the unfinished structure to the corner, here's another of those IHC Stores of Yesterday, called Second Hand Rose.
04-17-20 001.JPG

Again as with some other photos, this is staged in some better light than its normal location. I forgot to take any pictures of the two structures in between the unfinished building and this one, maybe tomorrow depending on today's activities.
Across the street from that is Hal's Hobbies. This is a Smalltown kit that I added the sidewalks to, none of their kits have sidewalks.
04-17-20 002.JPG

That's Hal's wife and daughter having a discussion on the balcony.
A close-up shows that it is a train store.
04-17-20 003.JPG

Old man Jacob has spotted a quarter behind the Hobby Shop.
04-17-20 004.JPG

Here's a look down the unfinished street between the two structures.
04-17-20 005.JPG


Guy -
McLeod said:
She does most of the work anyway, with a firm belief that I'm not capable of doing it properly.
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I resemble that! :(
Greg -
Greg@mnrr said:
we don't have trash pick, no local police (just the Sheriff), no salt used for secondary roads other than stop signs, hills and curves, volunteer Fire Department, 27 bed hospital, no street lights, weird zoning enforcement, no fire hydrants, voluntary med services... just to name a few of the lacking services, but I love being in the woods
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Excepting the hospital and weird zoning (we have neither), you're describing my neighborhood. Call 911 and the VFD or EMS can be here in just under 10 minutes, it generally takes the sheriff at least an hour. However my property taxes for the house, train shed, barn and 15 acres are less than 1/5 of what my daughters pay in suburban Dallas.
Curt - I don't see any errors, just a ramshackle old company house.
Mikey - I use a small Black & Decker handheld mini-vac.

Everybody have a great day.
 
santafewillie said:
Good Morning Everyone. Cloudy and 61°. Cool front is coming and it won't get any warmer all day. Warms up again tomorrow if the weather geeks are correct.
Disaster struck yesterday, the heating element finally went out in the water heater. It's 18 years old and it was expected. I have the replacement heater, an electric tankless unit, but I did not have all of the necessary breakers, wire, or stainless steel braided hoses to install it. So a trip to Home Depot took care of that, except I got the wrong breakers. Have to go back today. Yesterday's trip was not a complete waste, because my wife had to turn her H&R Block office keys back in. Why she didn't do it when she left the office Monday is a question that I chose not to ask.

How about a Mexican omelet this morning Flo. Extra sausage on the side and a big glass of OJ.

Thanks for the likes and comments yesterday regarding the ongoing cleanup project; Patrick, Sherrel, Bob, Louis, Garry, Chet, Tom, Phil, Hughie, Karl, Guy, Curt, Jerome, Ken.
The thought about making that unfinished structure into a burnt-out building, that several commenters pointed out, has crossed my mind.

Very little time in the train shed yesterday with all of the other stuff going on here. While I cleaned and dusted a few more structures, I eventually bumped into the throttle and ended up running trains for a while. After all, that's why I have them.
Skipping over to the left a bit, from the unfinished structure to the corner, here's another of those IHC Stores of Yesterday, called Second Hand Rose.
View attachment 46695
Again as with some other photos, this is staged in some better light than its normal location. I forgot to take any pictures of the two structures in between the unfinished building and this one, maybe tomorrow depending on today's activities.
Across the street from that is Hal's Hobbies. This is a Smalltown kit that I added the sidewalks to, none of their kits have sidewalks.
View attachment 46696
That's Hal's wife and daughter having a discussion on the balcony.
A close-up shows that it is a train store.
View attachment 46697
Old man Jacob has spotted a quarter behind the Hobby Shop.
View attachment 46698
Here's a look down the unfinished street between the two structures.
View attachment 46699

Guy -

I resemble that! :(
Greg -

Excepting the hospital and weird zoning (we have neither), you're describing my neighborhood. Call 911 and the VFD or EMS can be here in just under 10 minutes, it generally takes the sheriff at least an hour. However my property taxes for the house, train shed, barn and 15 acres are less than 1/5 of what my daughters pay in suburban Dallas.
Curt - I don't see any errors, just a ramshackle old company house.
Mikey - I use a small Black & Decker handheld mini-vac.

Everybody have a great day.
Click to expand...
Willie, check whether your power company has an insurance program for household appliances. Ours does, and the recent repairs to the stove, dish and clothes washers were free of charge. Our water heater is included in the program. The monthly subscription only adds a couple of dollars.
 
Good morning gang!
41° this morning and sunny, looking for a high of 57°!

Willie, Where eve did you get old man Jacob at? I've never seen a figure posed like that!

Curt, That company house looks good to me! No matter what one of the more uppity members think! ;)

Paul That rear step is a vexing one. The question is which is stronger, your desire to see it done, or your desire to see it done correctly. Lets see .........🤔

Train wise, yesterday I did manage to put the finishing touches on 3 of the 5 locos I have been working on for a friend. I've been referring to them by their 3 stooges names. Larry, Curly, and Moe are all parked in the engine house. Shemp is 90% done, just needs glazing and final assembly. Curly Joe has just been through the final stage of paint, needs decaling, glazing,, lighting and reassembly.

Speaking of glazing, yesterday was the 1st time I ever used laser cut glass (plastic). See, Larry and Curly were brought to me as Athearn BB kits that had been detailed , Painted (Some god-awful green). I stripped the details, stripped the shells and refinished them. Whether I misplaced the glass or they didn't have it, so I needed windows. No luck with Athearn or ebay, but a web search showed American Model Builders made a glass kit for Athearn BB SW1000s, so I ordered 2. Yes they are tedious for fat fingers, but the visual impact of flush fitting glass vs the standard Athearn offerings is HUGE! (pics to come later)

Be back later guys, gotta clean the basement (while SWMBO does the upstairs) toss a load of laundry or 2 in, oh, and the litter box! 🤭😺
 
Morning Everyone.....over cast again today.

Loss my BIL last night. No funeral since our family is spread out and there can't be any travel plans made. I'll spend the day in the train room taking my mind off Bob's passing and think about all the good times we had the brief time we were together.

I guess I need to run some locomotives through the wheel cleaning process. Several loco's don't want to run as good as they should on DCC. I plan on taking each ore car off the layout and inspect each and everyone for proper truck swing, coupler side to side and centering actions and check how the wheels turn. I need the ore cars to run perfect since ore cars have minds of their own with the short wheel bases. I ran a 40 car ore train and the KATO six axle pulled it fine on the straight until it when rounded a curve and it blew the breaker on my 5 amp power supply.

I did run one of my favorite ALCO's which ran fine until the front coupler pocket cover and screw fell off. I did find both parts and re-secured them. The ALCO is a former Rock Island that's been weathered and patched for the C&MN. I cleaned the ALCO's wheels which looked clean, but the grime really came off when run over paper towels and alcohol.

Willie: Do you get a advertising dollars for the RIX ad from Hal's Hobbies for the sign in the store window?

Like most people we're inside until May 26th, or 39 days. The weather will be nicer so we be at the cabin during some of the stay inside period.

I have to get a video made of the ore cars or the coal unit train.

That's all for now.....

Greg

######################

1548 Actual Loco.jpg
Actual SW1500 patched for the SOO. I have a model of this loco running on the layout. Several years ago there was a old patched MILW switcher still working a yard in downtown Milwaukee.
 
Howdy ...

Greg .... Very sad news about your BIL .... Prayers for your family...

Curt .... The house looks fantastic.

Louis .... That is a big, nice looking locomotive.

Paul .... Yoru SDP40 project looks like a good one.

WIllie ..... The downtown buildings look good.

George .... Apparently, you included a lot of model railroadng in your 1997 4x8 layout. Very nice.

Everybody ...... Have a nice day.
 
Sirfoldalot said:
That's a new one for me! Did not know that they made boxcars with opening ends?

Sure some YOUGGEE tires on that tanker - hate to have to change that sucker!
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I have two boxcars with end doors. They are Proto 2000 50’ automobile boxcars. Now I have an idea. I could add interest to my new scene with TOFC ramps . The end doors on the models do not open unfortunately.
 
kbkchooch said:
Willie, Where eve did you get old man Jacob at? I've never seen a figure posed like that!
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Karl - While I'd love to say that I kitbashed him, it actually came from a Woodland Scenics figures set called Ordinary People. Set # A1824.
The bulk of my figures are Preiser unpainted figures, but I have begun to spring for some of these Woodland Scenics sets. They do some neat poses in some of their sets. Check out the couple on the left in this set called Lovers. I have also used this set, Park Bums.
 
santafewillie said:
Karl - While I'd love to say that I kitbashed him, it actually came from a Woodland Scenics figures set called Ordinary People. Set # A1824.
The bulk of my figures are Preiser unpainted figures, but I have begun to spring for some of these Woodland Scenics sets. They do some neat poses in some of their sets. Check out the couple on the left in this set called Lovers. I have also used this set, Park Bums.
Click to expand...


Willie: What a memory to recall the Woodland Scenics SKU for the figure set. Sort of a John Allen touch. I wish I could paint figures!!!
 
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Patrick said:
Morning all,

Lent and Easter are over......
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In some circles, Patrick, Easter is such a big deal it lasts 8 days, the Octave of Easter. That is why we say Easter Sunday because it's followed by Easter Monday and so on. The Easter season itself lasts 50 days, until Pentecost.Then it is back to Ordinary Time. Not ordinary as in "the usual" but as in ordinal, counting, one follows the other. Like trains. One after the other.
 
Afternoon All,

Started out today with routine pool maintenance. After that I dragged a large folding table upstairs so I could spread the mine parts out for ease (easier) of finding. Thankfully all the carrier sheets are lettered then the individual parts are numbered. I found a rattle can of dark grey in my stuff so I'm using that and I have craft paint in light and dark grey that I use for touch up (like the dark sides of the laser cut parts) that match well. I'm thinking this kit will take about 3 weeks to complete.

Thank you to Mikey, Phil, Willie, Karl, Garry, Sherrel and to anyone I might of missed for your kind words.

Paul- Interesting trucks and nice job on the SD40 modifications. I would change the ladder because it would bother me if I didn't.

Louis- Nice looking loco. They are impressive in HO scale are I can only imagine how impressive it will be in yours.

Willie- Nice looking buildings.

George- Nice layout shots.

Greg- Condolences on your family's loss.

20200417_103015_copy_3024x2268.jpg

20200417_141002.jpg

The kit came with a jig to keep the legs straight while drying.

20200417_141016.jpg

I hope everyone has a good night.
 
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